Common Ground

 

"With a cultured of mistrust, how do we create community?  How do we find common ground?
Common ground.
Perhaps that is the place to start.  No matter what we think of one another's religious beliefs or practices, we do all stand on the same ground.  We share the same earth.  The same sun rises and sets on all of us.  Doesn't this transcend our doctrinal differences?

Millennia ago, early people's personified the sun and earth─ made deities of them, worshipped them.  Our modern scientific understanding of natural phenomenon makes it unreasonable for us to do that.  But surely we can share their reverence.  Surely we can follow their example of respect for the earth, the air, the water─ and be healthier and happier for it.

    If there is a theme that runs through the history of rituals related to the earth's seasons, it is renewal.  The wheel turns and the old season gives way to the new, the old year to the new, the old life to the new.  Each planting of seeds promises new possibilities.  Each harvest brings sustenance for yet another year.  each fallow time regenerates the life of the soil.  The sun deities retreat and return.  The grain goddesses are lost and restored.  The vegetation gods die and rise again.  The cycle of life goes on and on, birth after death after birth.  Perhaps what all the rituals celebrate is this continuity of life, the miraculous natural world that makes it possible, and our abiding connection to it."
-  By Patricia Montley, In Nature's Honor, 2005.    

Process Philosophy

Neo-Pagan Views

Springtime Thoughts

Springtime Thoughts

April - Quotations

"O Day after day we can't help growing older.
Year after year spring can't help seeming younger.
Come let's enjoy our winecup today,
Nor pity the flowers fallen."
-  Wang Wei, On Parting with Spring

"When the time is ripe for certain things,
these things appear in different places in the manner
of violets coming to light in the early spring."
-  Farkas Bolyai

April - Quotations

"Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment." 
-  Ellis Peters

"April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."
-  T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land, 1922

April - Quotations

Happy Holidays

We plan to enjoy the many celebrations that center around the Winter Solstice.  Best wishes to everyone.

Merry Christmas, Party at Saturnalia, a Happy New Year, beneficent Yule Celebrations, and more Winter Lore!  

Karen and I enjoy this season. We decorate a lighted tree, and set out Christmas decorations. We exchange presents with family and friends.  We prepare special holiday meals: cookies, tamales, Italian dishes, fruitcake, Mexican dishes, pies. We light fires in our fireplace. We play and sing Christmas carols. Many Pagan and Christian celebrations overlap in America, just like in ancient Rome in 100 CE. Retail stores and markets are busy, and Christmas decorations and colored lights are in evidence everywhere.  

Lately, our typical weather here in Vancouver, Washington, has been 35F low and 48F high, with light rain and fog, and sometimes with a little snow. As for gardening, we bring many frost sensitive potted plants indoors for warmth.

My brother, Philip Greco, was born on December 21st. I was born in January. I have always celebrated Christmas my whole life. This holiday season represents both the ending of the year and the beginning of the new year.  A mixed blessing. 

Yule Celebrations  A hypertext notebook by Mike Garofalo.  

Yule, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Xmas, Saturnalia, Wassail Blot, December 20th - 31st
Festival of the Fires, Feliz Navidad, Birthday of Mithras, New Year Celebrations, Santa Claus, Brumalia, Christmas Eve, Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, Las Posadas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, 2nd Celebration in the NeoPagan Holy Day Annual Cycle or Wiccan Wheel of the Year.


"Reclaim Santa Claus as a Pagan God form. Today's Santa is a folk figure with multicultural roots. He embodies characteristics of Saturn (Roman agricultural god), Cronos (Greek god, also known as Father Time), the Holly King (Celtic god of the dying year), Father Ice/Grandfather Frost (Russian winter god), Thor (Norse sky god who rides the sky in a chariot drawn by goats), Odin/Wotan (Scandinavian/Teutonic All-Father who rides the sky on an eight-legged horse), Frey (Norse fertility god), and the Tomte (a Norse Land Spirit known for giving gifts to children at this time of year). Santa's reindeer can be viewed as forms of Herne, the Celtic Horned God. Decorate your home with Santa images that reflect His Pagan heritage. Honor the Goddess as Great Mother. Place Pagan Mother Goddess images around your home. You may also want to include one with a Sun child, such as Isis with Horus. Pagan Goddess forms traditionally linked with this time of year include Tonantzin (Native Mexican corn mother), Holda (Teutonic earth goddess of good fortune), Bona Dea (Roman women's goddess of abundance and prophecy), Ops (Roman goddess of plenty), Au Set/Isis (Egyptian/multicultural All Goddess whose worship continued in Christian times under the name Mary), Lucina/St. Lucy (Roman/Swedish goddess/saint of light), and Befana (Italian Witch who gives gifts to children at this season)."
- Selena Fox, Celebrating the Winter Solstice 

"It was the Yuletide, that men call Christmas though they know in their hearts it is older than Bethlehem and Babylon, older than Memphis and mankind."
-  H.P. Lovecraft

Are not Yuletide costumes fascinating?
The Ice King and Ice Queen from Russia.

"Before the time of Constantine the ancient world was a virtual cornucopia of different religions and cults that existed all over the Roman Empire and eastward into China and India. As a result of these competing doctrines "when Christianity was only one of several dozen foreign Eastern cults struggling for recognition in Rome, the religious dualism and dogmatic moral teaching of Mithraism set it apart from other sects, creating a stability previously unknown in Roman paganism" (Mithras in the Roman Empire). The striking parallels to Christianity in Mithraism have long been pointed out, for Mithras was said to have been: born of a virgin birth, had twelve followers or disciples, was killed and resurrected, performed miracles, and was known as mankind's savior who was called the light of the world and his virgin birth occurred on December 25. Indeed, the resemblances are so striking in that all of the Christian mysteries were known nearly five hundred years before the birth of Christ that later church fathers claimed that Satan had created all of this prior to Christ's birth so as to confuse the laity. In regard to Mithras Nabaraz wrote: 'According to Persian traditions, the god Mithras was actually incarnated into the human form of the Saviour expected by Zarathustra. Mithras was born of Anahita, an immaculate virgin mother once worshipped as a fertility goddess before the hierarchical reformation. Anahita was said to have conceived the Saviour from the seed of Zarathustra preserved in the waters of Lake Hamun in the Persian province of Sistan. Mithra's ascension to heaven was said to have occurred in 208 B.C., 64 years after his birth. This birth took place in a cave or grotto, where shepherds attended him and regaled him with gifts, at the winter solstice. This is based on an older myth about birth of Mithra, that his magical birth at the dawn of time was from a rock from which he formed himself using his Will. He holds in his hand a dagger and a torch. A statue from Housesteads shows Mithras being born from the rock while the twelve signs of the zodiac surround him, showing his image as a stellar god who rules the cosmos even at his birth. A serpent [is at} times shown to be coiled around…Mithras or [his] birth stone/egg. (Mithras and Mithraism).' "

- Christ, Constantine, Sol Invictus: The Unconquerable Sun By Ralph Monday

Yuletide Customs: Family Gatherings in Oregon and Washington



Thanksgiving Day, 2012, Oregon
Betty Eubanks-Yarber, R.I.P., 2017
Family Gatherings are popular at Yuletide in America,
or later at Chinese New Year Week.

2015 Christmas, Oregon

2020 Washington

2020 Washington

October Morning Mild

A repost from 2013

"O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away."
-   Robert Frost, October

October: Poems, Quotes, Sayings, Lore

"Gardening is the slowest of the performing arts."
-  Mac Keith Griswold

The month of October, for us, in Red Bluff, California, means cooler daytime temperatures, some rain, brisk mornings, falling leaves, ripening apples and persimmons, closing down the summertime vegetable garden, planting a winter garden, blooming chrysanthemums, longer walks, pruning, fertilizing, and cleaning up the yard and gardens.  

A few photographs of our garden are included below.  The photographs were all taken by Karen Garofalo in October 2013.

Haiku and Quintains: Months and Seasons: Cuttings

Cuttings

Haiku, Short Verses, Epigrams
Quatrains, Couplets, Tercets
Quintains, Tankas, Sequences

By Mike Garofalo

 

Winter

January

February

March

 

Spring

April

May

June

 

Summer

July

August

September

 

Fall, Autumn

October

November

December

 

 

1998-2017: Red Bluff, Tehama County
North Sacramento Valley, California

2017-2025: Vancouver, Clark County,
Columbia River, Washington

 

Vernal Equinox

A Repost from 2017

This will be our last Spring Season living in beautiful Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California. We will be moving to the City of Vancouver, Washington State, on April 14, 2017.

"Here the white-ray'd anemone is born,
Wood-sorrel, and the varnish'd buttercup;
And primrose in its purfled green swathed up,
Pallid and sweet round every budding thorn,
Gray ash, and beech with rusty leaves outworn.
Here, too the darting linnet hath her nest
In the blue-lustred holly, never shorn,
Whose partner cheers her little brooding breast,
Piping from some near bough. O simple song!
O cistern deep of that harmonious rillet,
And these fair juicy stems that climb and throng
The vernal world, and unexhausted seas
Of flowing life, and soul that asks to fill it,
Each and all of these,--and more, and more than these!"
- William Allingham, In a Spring Grove

"The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month."
- Henry Van Dyke, Fisherman's Luck

"The air and the earth interpenetrated in the warm gusts of spring; the soil was full of sunlight, and the sunlight full of red dust. The air one breathed was saturated with earthy smells, and the grass under foot had a reflection of the blue sky in it."
- Willa Cather

"I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils."
- William Wordsworth

Spring: Quotations, Sayings, Lore, Poetry

The Spirit of Gardening: 3,800 Quotations

Months and Seasons

November Garden Chores

November Gardening Chores

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA

USDA Zone 9

Removing dead and non-productive summer vegetable crops. 

Turn in composted steer manure and compost into the cleared vegetable garden.
Ordering from seed and garden catalogs. 
Planting potted trees and shrubs. 
Putting winter crops in the ground and harvesting greens: onions, lettuce, radishes, garlic, beets, chard, cabbage.
Placing cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas or indoors.
Planting bulbs.
Prune and mulch dormant perennials.
Prune fruit trees.
Storing and repairing tools. 
Cleaning, storing, repairing and removing gasoline from equipment.
Fertilize with 20-9-9 or 16-16-16. 
Trees without leaves need little or no watering.  
Reduce or eliminate watering, watering as needed, depending upon rainfall, normally 3.1 inches in November.
Picking pumpkins, squash, colored corn, and other crops for Thanksgiving decorations.
Pruning grape vines. 
Picking and storing peppers. 
Raking leaves and add to compost piles and mulch layers.
Lawn care: aerate soil and fertilize.   
Digging holes and post holes in cooler weather. 
Burning dead trees and shrubs in burn pile. 
Watering potted plants. 
Reading gardening books and catalogs. 

Typical Weather for Our Area

Red Bluff, California.  Natural History Studies at our Home and Gardens

The Spirit of Gardening

November: Quotes, Sayings, Lore

The Colors of November

The autumn colors are very dramatic in Vancouver, Clark County, Washington.  The four maples in our back yard are quite colorful at present.

Autumn: Poetry, Sayings, Lore, Quotations

The Spirit of Gardening

"Then summer fades and passes and October comes. We'll smell smoke then, and feel an unexpected sharpness, a thrill of nervousness, swift elation, a sense of sadness and departure."
- Thomas Wolfe


"Lo! sweeten’d with the summer light,
The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow,
Drops in a silent autumn night.
All its allotted length of days
The flower ripens in its place,
Ripens and fades, and falls, and hath no toil,
Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil."
- Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Lotus-Eaters"

I walk with my dog, Bruno, for 40 to 60 minutes in our neighborhood.  Here are a few photographs of our walking environment.  

A Million Aprils Came and Went

"How many million Aprils came
before I ever knew
how white a cherry bough could be,
a bed of squills, how blue
And many a dancing April
when life is done with me,
will lift the blue flame of the flower
and the white flame of the tree
Oh burn me with your beauty then,
oh hurt me tree and flower,
lest in the end death try to take
even this glistening hour..."
- Sara Teasdale, Blue Squills, 1920



"The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his Heaven—
All's right with the world!"
- Robert Browning, The Year's at the Spring


Spring: Quotations, Poems, Sayings

Uncle Mike's Cellphone Poetry Series - Announcements

 

Uncle Mike's

Cellphone Poetry Series I

Short Poems

By Michael P. Garofalo

 

     Summer Adventures

     Seaside Snippets

     Autumn Views

     Uncommon Considerations

     Winter Home

     Springtime Days

     Backyard Gardens

     Uncle Mike's Favorites

 

Short Poems by Michael P. Garofalo

Haiku, Brief Free Verse, Photos

Tercets, Concrete Poems, Quartets

Cinquains, Waka, Couplets, Senryu
Sonnets, Limericks, Quatrains

30 Letters per Line of Text

Uncle Mike's Cellphone Poetry Series

Uncle Mike's Cellphone Poetry Series I

Short Poems by Michael P. Garofalo

Uncle Mike's Cellphone Poetry Series II
Uncle Mike's Favorites: Collections of Short Poems
Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo

 

Uncle Mike's Cellphone Poetry Series

Uncle Mike's

Cellphone Poetry Series

By Michael P. Garofalo

 

     Summer Adventures

     Seaside Snippets

     Autumn Views

     Uncommon Considerations

     Winter Home

     Springtime Days

     Backyard Gardens

 

Short Poems by Michael P. Garofalo

Haiku, Brief Free Verse, Photos

Tercets, Concrete Poems, Quartets

Cinquains, Waka, Couplets, Senryu

30 Letters Max per Line of Text

Uncle Mike's Cellphone Poetry Series

Uncle Mike's Cellphone Poetry Series

 

Months and Seasons Webpages Series

Comments before a Cloud Hands Blog Repost from April 22, 2012:  

I lived back then in Tehama County, near Red Bluff, California.  

Since 2000, I had been interested in studying Neo-Pagan theology, rituals, concepts, and creeds, e.g., Druidry, Wiccan, Taoist, Yoga, Zen.  

I published many hypertext notebooks on months, seasons, nature studies, gardening, gardens, plants, spirituality, Neo-Pagan and New Age topics, fitness, taijiquan, yoga, Taoism, Zen, Druids, etc. Many, many many millions of people used these Green Way Research Hypertext Notebooks from 2000-2021.  These hypertext notebooks are one of my gifts to others in our world.  

I had been teaching yoga and taijiquan since 2001 both privately and at the Tehama Family Fitness Center in Red Bluff, adjacent to the St. Elizabeth's Hospital and Medical Professional Complex.  I taught three yoga classes and two taijiquan classes each week at the TFFC from 2003 to 2016; a great part-time job for me.  I obtained many fitness certifications at workshops and training courses.    

Again, a Repost from April 22, 2012:

All avid gardeners are keen observers of the impact of the seasonal changes in their local environment.  Garden work projects must be carefully timed with the flow of the seasons and weather changes so as to minimize wasted effort, prevent wasted time, reduce costs, and maximize their gardening effectiveness and success. 

Those who enjoy outdoor activities and outdoor sports plan their activities around the cycle of the seasons.  Vacations and outings are carefully scheduled with the weather in mind. 

Persons interested in NeoPagan religions and Nature Worshippers play close attention to the “Cycle of the Seasons.”  Holy Days and Rites are planned and celebrated based upon a seasonally based liturgical cycle.  

 

I live in the Northern Hemisphere at latitude 40°10' North, in Red Bluff, California, in the North Sacramento Valley.  Cities with a similar northern latitude include Beijing, Barcelona, Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Madrid, Naples, New York, and Vladivostok.    

 

When I created my Months and Seasons Webpages Series I made the following assumptions.  First, the resources (i.e., quotations, poems, sayings, facts, links, citations, etc.) would be organized by months and seasons so as to be relevant to me, a person gardening and walking and enjoying nature studies in the Northern Hemisphere.  Second, resources chosen would be relevant for a gardener and nature lover.  Third, resources chosen would reflect my interests in NeoPagan customs, Indo-European myths and lore, Far Eastern worldviews, nature mysticism, ecology, and the Green worldview. 

  

Every year, the most popular webpages that I have published have been the 26 webpages in the Months and Seasons Webpages Series.  These "Cycle of the Year" webpages are served very frequently to readers all around the world.  Since they are so popular, I offer the webpages in this series at both my domains: gardendigest.com and egreenway.com.  I try to make additions and improvements to some of these webpages every month.  I use Google Analytics and my Internet web host's (Blue Host in Utah) statistical programs to keep track of how many times these webpages (excluding counts of graphics served on these webpages) were served by my Internet web host to readers in 2011.  

1,287,000 Webpages Were Served in 2011 from the Months and Seasons Webpages Series by Mike Garofalo

January    84,200

February   82,100 

Imbolic, Mid-Winter Celebrations   300   

March   103,700 

Spring   84,700

Vernal Equinox, Minerva/Athena Celebrations   900

April   67,200 

May   62,100

Beltane, May Day, Walpurgis Nacht Celebrations   1,200  

June   42,600

Summer   40,300

Summer Solstice Celebrations   2,200

July   41,800 

August   68,500

Lughnasadh, Mid-Summer Celebrations   2,400

September   85,900 

Autumn   23,800 

Autumnal Equinox, Mabon Celebrations  12,200 

October   103,800 

Halloween, Samhain, Ancestors Day Celebrations   6,000

November   105,000

December   117,100    

Winter   55,700

Winter Solstice, Yule, Saturnalia, Christmas Celebrations   4,500

Seasons and Time   5,300

Index   83,500 

Total   1,287,000

Process Philosophy

Process Philosophy   A hypertext notebook by Michael Garofalo including quotes, bibliography, links, notes, research, and related information.  

My summer reading list includes books on process philosophy by Nicholas Rescher, Alfred North Whitehead, Robert Mesle, Hank Keeton, and Elizabeth Kraus.  

"Philosophers who appeal to process rather than substance include Heraclitus, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson, Martin Heidegger, Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, Alfred North Whitehead, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Thomas Nail, Alfred Korzybski, R. G. Collingwood, Alan Watts, Robert M. Pirsig, Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Charles Hartshorne, Arran Gare, Nicholas Rescher, Colin Wilson, Tim Ingold, Bruno Latour, and Gilles Deleuze. In physics, Ilya Prigogine distinguishes between the "physics of being" and the "physics of becoming". Process philosophy covers not just scientific intuitions and experiences, but can be used as a conceptual bridge to facilitate discussions among religion, philosophy, and science."  -  Process Philosophy - Wikipedia     

Process Philosophy - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Whitehead, Alfred North  (1861-1947)

Wikipedia     Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy  

Whitehead, Alfred North.  Science and the Modern World.  1926, 218 pages.  Kindle Version, VSCL . 

Whitehead, Alfred North.  Process and Reality.  Gifford Lectures delivered in the University of Edinburgh during the Session 1927-1928.  Published in 1929.  Free Press, 1979, 413 pages.  VSCL. 

Whitehead:  Keeton, Hank.  Dao De Jing: A Process Perspective.  By Yu Fu and Hank Keeton.  Susanna Mennicke, Designer.  Seeing Tao Pub., 2019, 296 pages.  VSCL. 

Whitehead:  Process-Relational Philosophy: An Introduction to Alfred North Whitehead.  By C. Robert Mesle.  TFP, 2008, 136 pages.  VSCL. 

Whitehead:  Process Philosophy: A Survey of Basic Issues.  By Nicholas Rescher.  University of Pittsburgh, 2000, 152 pages. 

Whitehead: Emptiness and Becoming: Integhrating Madhyamika Buddhism and Process Philosophy.  By Peter Paul Kakol.  D. K. Printworld, 2009, 432 pages. 

Whitehead:  Process Metaphysics: An Introduction to Process Philosophy.  By Nicholas Rescher.  SUNY, 1996, 240 pages. 
 

Whitehead:  Process Philosophy and Political Liberalism: Rawls, Whitehead, Hartshorne.  By Daniel A. Dombrowski.  Edinburgh University Press, 2019, 224 pages. 

Whitehead:  The Metaphysics of Experience: A Companion to Whitehead's Process and Reality.  By Elizabeth Kraus.  Fordham University Press, 2018, 256 pages.  Kindle, VSCL. 

The Concept of "Hunyuan"

"Hunyuan is an ancient, central concept of Daoist philosophy and meditation practice. Hun means undifferentiated unity, the state of mind and being that occurs when one does not divide the world into concepts. In other words, hun is equivalent to inner silence. Yuan means origin or original. The importance of Yuan is attested by the fact that it is the opening word of Qian, the first chapter of the Yi Jing (The Classic of Change). "Original [Yuan], Penetrating [Heng], Auspicious [Li], Correct [Zhen]." This mantric phrase may be interpreted as four stages in the creation or evolution of an idea or phenomenon; or it may represent the four seasons.

Yuan is the root or antecedent of any action. It is the creative spark or impulse, like a seed planted in Spring which is just ready to sprout. Heng is the Summer, and represents germination and development. The character heng originally meant a sacrificial cup used to make offerings to the Gods. Most commentators explain heng as tong, penetrating or reaching to the Gods. Li means to cut grain, to harvest or reap the benefits of what was grown. It is thus the Autumn season. Zhen, which originally included the character for tripod means steady and correct. It also means divination. Zhen is the winter season, when the energies of life retreat back into the ground and people return from the fields to their homes. The spark of yang is hidden in the yin. Winter is a time for inner work rather than outer work, a time to perfect one's character and prepare for the coming year by consulting oracles.

The character yuan was originally a composite of shang the word "above" with ren, the word "person." Hence, yuan means the upper part of a person's body, the head, or, as we say in English to go ahead, to be first. Interestingly, the Chinese character Dao also contains an element that means both head and first, shou. One of my Daoist teachers, the late B. P. Chan, defined Dao as "the path to the origin." We could also interpret this as returning to the origin. When the body Returns to the Origin, it renews itself with the energy of life, the all pervading qi of the universe. It becomes like an uncarved block of wood-- the Daoist symbol of a person uncorrupted by the stresses and worries of life. As Lao Zi says, "See the unbleached silk, embrace the uncarved block; reduce selfishness, lessen desire." (When the mind Returns to the Origin, it becomes simple and pure like a newborn babe, able to perceive the world with a fresh innocence.)

Hun with yuan becomes the concept Hunyuan, the Primordial State of Being. The term is synonymous with the word Dao itself and also with Taiji (the Undifferentiated, as in Taiji Quan, a martial art and healing art that blends yin and yang, suppleness with strength). Philosophy and personal cultivation are not separate categories in Daoist thought. Thus, Hunyuan is the Primal Being (God) or Beingness that both precedes and underlies all creation. It is also the spiritual state of a person who practices Daoist meditation."

- Hunyuan Qigong: Tracing Life to Its Roots
  An excellent essay by Master Kenneth Cohen, 2007


Hun Yuan Qigong

Hun Yuan Taijiquan

Months and Seasons of the Year